Academic Calendar
In academic calendars, the year usually starts in late summer or early fall – in both hemispheres – and it is usually subdivided into 2 to 6 terms of similar length: semesters, quadmesters, trimesters or quarters etc. A school calendar often includes long summer holidays between years and several shorter breaks throughout the year, often between terms and around national holidays, civil or religious. Holidays are mostly free recreational time in primary and secondary education, but in tertiary education, weeks without classes (i.e. lectures, seminars or other courses) are often intended for exams, test preparations, term papers, internships, excursions (field trips) and so on. Academic terms vary wildly between and even within countries. One problem of harmonization, among many, is whether the major break, usually summer holidays, is part of a division or stands on its own. Since academic schedules are usually primarily focused on weeks, not months, the international week calendar is used henceforth. Academic Year 48 Study Weeks Each calendrical quart of 13 (or 14) weeks contains one complete academic quarter or trimester and at least one holiday week. Free weeks are located where local holidays afford it; they may be split. If possible they should occur as 1st or after the 4th, 8th or 12th week. The trimester is then subdivided into 3 months or modules of 4 (consecutive) weeks each. 4 consecutive months are regrouped as a quadmester. 2 consecutive trimesters form a semester, this may span the year boundary. Semesters of 6 months are labeled by the season they fully incorporate, i.e., on the Northern hemisphere, a winter semester contains Q4 and Q1 of the following year, spring semester Q1/Q2, summer semester Q2/Q3 and autumn or fall semester Q3/Q4. Trimesters of 3 months take the name from the season they begin in, i.e., again in the North, winter quadmester Q1, spring quadmester Q2, summer quadmester Q3 and autumn or fall quadmester Q4. Quadmesters of 4 months are named by the trimester they contain the major part of, or by the later part if both are equal. Up to half the terms or months may be reserved for independent study, i.e. no mandatory lectures are held and rooms may be used otherwise (e.g. for exams or conferences). For winter and summer semesters, it’s customary to assign the final 2 months to such use (Feb+Mar, Aug+Sep), but for fall and spring semesters, it’s often the initial 2 months instead (Jul+Aug, Jan+Feb) – there’re just 32 weeks of classes then in both cases. No exams are held in break weeks. 45 Study Weeks The major Christian holiday of Easter (including Good Friday) actually falls in weeks W13–W17 and rarely W18, with the Monday of the week after that also being conisdered a holiday in many countries. The nominal date of “Easter break” at W11 in an academic calendar with 5 basic blocks of 9 continuous weeks each therefore probably would have to be adaptable into the “Spring term” in practice. With 9 blocks of 5 weeks each, a collective term of 3 such blocks, i.e. 15 weeks, is between 3 and 4 months or ¼ and ⅓ year long, so it could reasonably be called either trimester or quadmester – or triterm. 42 Study Weeks In about 40% of years, the “Easter holiday” of an academic calendar with 6 constituent blocks of 7 weeks each in W16 and W17 actually covers the current Western Christian date of Easter; otherwise it’s usually 1 to 3 weeks earlier, i.e. somewhere near the end of “Winter term 2” and “Winter trimester”. The “trimesters” in this variant are of equal overall length, i.e. 15 weeks, as with 9 blocks of 5 weeks each (i.e. 45 study weeks), but they include a variable week-long break and are all offset by 1 week: W36–W50 vs. W37–W51, W01–W15 vs. W02–W16 and W18–W32 vs. W19–W33. With 7 constituent blocks of 6 weeks each, the resulting “Winter semester” (16 or 17 weeks) is considerably longer than the “Summer semester” (14 weeks). Its roughly 3-month trimesters are all exactly 13 weeks on the other hand. Its “Easter break” in weeks W14 and W15 covers the date of Catholic Easter in almost 50% of the years, but may be 1 week earlier or up to 3 weeks later in other years – “Pentecost term” and “Carnival term” are likewise only close to their actual dates. 40 Study Weeks Ten weeks are always less than 3 months or ¼ year (but also more than 2 months), so it’s not really appropriate to call it a trimester. 36 Study Weeks There are several useful patterns to spread 3 trimesters of exactly 12 study weeks with intervening breaks each across the year, two are shown here. The first has a convetional longer summer holiday, the second almost guarantees (over 99% of years) to cover Catholic Easter with the respective break and all 3 breaks are 5 or 6 weeks long exactly. Holidays If Christmas Day, 25 December, is in week 51 it is always either on a Saturday or Sunday, hence week 52 can safely be assigned a holiday week at the end of the year. (In jurisdictions where christmas matters, that is of course.) If the first week of the year is also a holiday, 1 and 6 January are almost always included, too. Academic Day Schedule Primary and Secondary Education The amount of expected work in secondary education is two thirds and in primary education half that of tertiary education, but the value of credit points is the same, therefore pupils earn either 40 or 30 ECTS points per year instead of 60. As a rule of thumb, in ISCED level 1, a pupil is expected to have a ratio of roughly 3:1 attendance to preparation, in level 2 it is 2:1, in level 3 and 4 it is 1:1, in level 5a 1:2, in level 5b rather 1:3 and in level 6 at least 1:4. Every child in the world is entitled to a basic education, which covers literacy and calculus, of at least 4 years free of charge. If this ISCED level 1 education ends after 4 years, the school type is called Primary School, whereas Elementary School lasts for 6 years and may be subdivided in equal parts into Junior and Senior years. Primary School may be followed by a 2-year Middle School. Consecutive options are then the same. Every developed country must offer all of its youth a place in secondary education and even require them to attend school for an overall of 10 years. It should do so at no extra cost for the parents. Secondary education should include mandatory lessons in at least one non-native language. Whether secondary education begins at year 5 or 7 and whether or how pupils are separated by performance levels, is up to local governance. Schools directly following Primary School (Aspirance) include the Gymnasium, Lyceum (both with special admission requirements) and High School, which all commonly lead to tertiary education (level 5a) qualification with Abitur, Matriculation '''and '''License, respectively. Only High School is subdivided into Junior and Senior years, where the first part may end with Graduation as it ends at the same stage as Grade School. Regular School, on the other hand, ends after 6 more years with Commendation and may be followed by 2-year Upper School (Matura) or any of Military, Career, Vocational, Trade and Preparatory School. After Elementary or Middle School (i.e. Candidature or Transition), a 4-year Secondary School (Diploma) or a 2×3-year Grammar School (Baccalaureate or simply Laureate) follows, where a secondary language is mandatory. Less frequent school types are the 2-part Comprehensive School of 10 years (first degree Warrant, second degree Qualification) and first-level schools that start later and hence are prepended not by Nursery School, but Infant School, First School or Preschool which also award Admission at the end. They are usually followed by alternative primary education schools: either 3-year Lower School, which ends with Aspirancy like Primary School and later usually leads to Regular and Upper School, or 2×3-year Grade School, where Senior Grade School ends up much like Junior High School. After 12 years of primary and secondary education a pupil may attend level-4 Postschool in preparation for tertiary education degrees. Tertiary and Later Education We will specify a default system that works well with (ISCED) and (ECTS) requirements, where 1 credit point (CP) accounts for 25 to 30 hours of work. This works out reasonably well with 42, 45 or 48 study weeks per year, not all of which will require attendance of lectures. It would of course also be possible to use 49 (= 7 × 7), 44 (= 4 × 11), 40 (= 4 × 10) or 39 (= 3 × 13 weeks/term) study weeks per year. A student will usually first earn a Bachelor degree, potentially followed by a Master degree and finally an academic Doctor degree. There are several kinds of bachelors, masters and doctors, though, and even preliminary degrees. The most common kind of bachelor is a Honors or Honours Degree (BHon) which takes three years of study and a final thesis. An extra semester is requried for a Research Degree (BRes) and the maximum of four years may lead towards a Letters Degree (BLitt). All of these may be followed by a Master of Philosophy (MPhil) study programme usually lasting for as long as it takes to make a consecutive programme five years in total. An intermediary study of one year is possible, too, and awards either a Bachelor of Letters (BLitt) or a Master of Research (MRes) degree. After achieving a MPhil, a graduate may choose or may be requried to enrole in a Master of Letters (MLitt) study before starting doctoral studies. If a student first receives a Certificate after one year, an Associate Degree after three semesters or four to five trimesters, a Foundation Degree after two years or a Pass Degree after five semesters or seven to eight trimesters, they must add another short degree including a thesis, often a Bachelor of Research (BRes), in order to get accepted into master programmes. Even then, they may be restricted to certain kinds of masters, especially the Master of Research, which may be suceeded by a Master of Philosophy and finally a Master of Letters or a Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil). A Doctor of Science (DSci) usually requires at least a MPhil degree or even a MLitt, a MRes will not suffice. Bachelors of Honors and Masters of Philosphy in most fields are labeled with a more specialised degree: Bachelor and Master of Arts (BArt, MArt) in the humanities, Bachelor and Master of Engineering (BEng, MEng) in the applied sciences, Bachelor and Master of Science (BSci, MSci) in the sciences, Bachelor and Master of Education (BEdu, MEdu) in teaching. The Bachelor of Muse (BMus) in the liberal arts usually takes four years, hence is a Bachelor of Letters degree. It is followed by a one-year or two-year Master of Muse (MMus). The studies of laws and medicine are unusual in that a Bachelor of Laws or Medicine (BLaw, BMed) takes three years as is the default, but the consecutive Master of Laws or Medicine (MLaw, MMed) also lasts three years, but the succeeding studies for a Doctor of Laws or Medicine (DLaw, DMed) degree take not as long as elsewhere. Only Universities may offer study programmes at all levels. Colleges, sometimes split into Junior College and Senior College, are limited to bachelor degrees, but may also offer preparation courses. They may coopereate with a Doctoral College which offers matching master and doctor programmes. The strictest division is in Undergraduate, Graduate and Postgraduate Schools, which offer bachelor, master and doctor programmes, respectively. Preparatory Schools may not reward formal degrees that include a thesis, whereas Academies will only offer programmes concluding with a thesis. Vocational Schools focus on study on or close to the job and may be amended by Professional Schools which award bachelor and master degrees. Sources * * Category:Calendars used by miscellaneous groups Category:Proposed calendars Category:Equal-quarter calendars Category:Christoph Päper